


A long way forward

by Xairathan



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion | Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:11:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xairathan/pseuds/Xairathan
Summary: A phone call that never happened, and a visit that changed nothing. NTE 9th Angel.





	A long way forward

A great deal of being an EVA pilot, Asuka realizes, consists of doing nothing. The support crews are still decontaminating the little hallway through which Asuka must walk in order to reach the entry plug, so she's stuck in her little transport car with a plugsuit that's too revealing and a phone with no one to call. Even if there was, Asuka wouldn't want to speak with anyone- or, maybe, there's one person she wouldn't mind. The problem is, Asuka doesn't have Rei's number, nor does she know anyone who would. Shinji, maybe? No, he'd never be able to work up the courage to ask. There's only one other person to try, then.

Asuka picks up her phone and hits the redial button. Misato picks up on the second ring. “Misato,” Asuka says. “Hey- no, I didn't forget something- I need the First’s phone number. Don't ask!”

Misato rattles off a string of numbers for Asuka, twice. Asuka ends the call after the second time, in part so she can call Rei, but mostly so she won't have Misato's giggling plaguing her as she dials Rei. The entire idea stinks of stupidity, now that Asuka thinks about it. She has no connection to the First Child, or at least tells herself she doesn't. She's brushed off her staring at Rei in the aquarium as jealous curiosity; the incident in the elevator was just a disagreement, and nothing more. Asuka's hands tighten around her phone nervously. Dial, Asuka, she tells herself. Dial before you forget.

She does. On the first ring, she nearly drops the phone. She wonders, on the second, if Rei would even answer for someone who isn't her precious Commander. On the third, a soft voice comes through the speakers with a gentle crackle. “Hello?”

“First,” Asuka says. “Don't say a word, you hear me?” There's a rustling on the other side, like Rei's nodded even though Asuka can't see her. Asuka works a breath past the knot in her throat. “I'm not piloting this for you, you know. I just want to be in an EVA, especially since they're taking Unit-02 from me. That's all I care about. I came here to pilot EVA, not to make fake friends.”

On the other end, a quiet rushing of air. It might be a sigh; it might have been Rei, drawing in a breath to speak, before remembering what Asuka told her. “I don't know why I called,” Asuka says, talking over her. “Just don't think you owe me anything or any sentimental bullshit like that. I did this for myself, and if you want to put in all that effort for your party and stupid Shinji, then by all means.”

Asuka pulls the phone away from her face and almost misses the whisper-like reply that drifts through the speaker. “It was not meant only for Ikari,” she hears Rei say. A surge of fire rushes through Asuka; she's seeing red- she didn't _have_ to volunteer for Unit-03, Rei would have appreciated her either way, but she _had_ to, because repairing the bond between Shinji and his father would have made Rei happy, and the only thing Asuka has wanted aside from EVA is for Rei to be happy.

“You stupid pet,” Asuka gasps out, and hangs up before she hears a reply. The support crews knock on the hatch of Asuka's pod as she lowers her phone, telling her they're ready. Asuka adjusts the neural clips behind her ears and prepares to step out and walk those twenty or so steps to Unit-03’s entry plug. For Rei, she tells herself. She will pilot EVA to ensure Rei's happiness and hers, though she already knows which of these is the real reason she's going into Unit-03.

-

Unit-03 is a tangled mess of metal and blood, mostly blood, littering the houses nestled between two large hills. Generally, settlements in valleys are meant to be safe, Rei thinks. Today, they are not.

The entry plug of Unit-03 lies in a puddle of Angel blood, snapped cleanly in two. Asuka was in there. Asuka volunteered for Rei's sake; Rei knows this in spite of what Asuka had said; she'd known since they fought in the elevator, but never knew what to say in response. The most she managed was ‘thank you’, and now she knows it wasn't enough. The recovery crews are hauling a stretcher between them, as if they hope there might be something to save. It was never enough.

Amazingly, everyone else caught in the Matsushiro explosion lived. The only life still unaccounted for is Asuka's. Rei looks at the dents in the entry plug, caused by Unit-01’s teeth. Caused by the dummy system, Rei knows. She is as complicit in Asuka's fate as Shinji, as the Commander.

“Blood pattern Orange!” someone shouts. “Clear the area!”

Immediately there are two suited men at Rei’s side, Section Two, escorting her away with one hand on each of her shoulders. Rei twists her neck around and catches a glimpse of the Second Child, her face bloodied and eerily slack, being extracted from the wreck. Were it not for the red that covers her skin and her plugsuit, Rei thinks, Asuka might have been asleep. As she watches, a blue spark shines from the bloody void of Asuka's left eye, flashing on and off like the flaring of a newborn star. Rei turns back around, lets herself be led away. She knows that spark was looking at her in the same way she knows Asuka has survived, even if she's barely holding on.

Maybe if they'll let her, Rei thinks, she'll go visit Asuka. Rei directs her eyes skyward, where the last of the day's light has begun to fade from the sky. Maybe they could still be friends.

 


End file.
